This test of the Orion parachute system will be a nail-biter for the engineers who have been working to design it. Join us live to watch a Google+ Hangout from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. EDT, June 25, from the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. We will push a test version of Orion out of an airplane 35,000 feet above the Arizona desert in its most complex parachute test ever. Watch the test live and hear from Orion engineers who have been testing and building the spacecraft about what they’ve learned so far and what they’re looking forward to seeing when Orion launches into space on its first test flight in December.

Exploration Flight Test-1, an uncrewed test of the spacecraft, will send Orion 3,600 miles away from Earth. Orion’s parachutes are being tested to ensure they can slow the capsule for a safe landing in the Pacific Ocean as the spacecraft reenters Earth’s atmosphere from deep space missions at speeds of up to 20,000 mph.